Thursday, June 25, 2009

Who's Left in the DNC Fundraiser?

Short answer: People looking for work. As you may know, lots of people have dropped out of the DNC gay fundraiser scheduled for tonight.

Of those who've vowed to attend, even amid protests outside, I contacted a few.

Joan Garry, former executive director of GLAAD, who was looking for a job in the White House, is still going, she told me, after I had to eventually post on her Facebook wall when she didn't get back to me on email for several days. She believes we must "engage" and is going to take a strong message to the fundraiser. I asked if her resume was with administration officials. She said that she had "withdrawn" herself from consideration for a job back in December and that any number of "gay and straight" people could confirm this. I guess we could assume from that she is not looking for, and will not accept, any job in the adminstration or elsewhere in politics, right?

I had Dixon Osburn, former executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, on the show yesterday. He too stressed why it was important to be present and have an "opportunity" to perhaps, maybe, hopefully speak with headliner Joe Biden. And said he supports the protesters as well as those inside, even though the protesters are protesting those inside. He pretty much described himself as working on various projects, including starting a consulting firm (which presumably requires keeping contacts, getting clients, etc.), since he left SLDN in 2007. And he confirmed what he told me in an e-mail that his resume for an actual job in the administration "is in a pile" at the White House but he's "not waiting by the phone" for a call.

Listen to some of my interview with Osburn in the following clips. First one is on why he's going, and the second one is about the issue of his resume: